Vital

Vital: Book Four of the “Insight” Series

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to any real people or event is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2011 by Jamie Magee

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without

the express consent of the publisher and author, except where permitted by law. Print ISPN:
ISBN-13:978-1479391141

ISBN-10:

147939114X

Cover art rights owned by Jamie Magee Cover art design by Marek Purzycki First printed copy, November 2011 Created in the United States of America

"In
a
controversy,
the
instant
we
feel
anger,
we
have
already
ceased
striving
for
truth
and
have
begun
striving
for
ourselves."
~
Abraham
J.
Heschel

For
my
soul
mate,
Lem,
who
taught
me
that
love
is
every
emotion
wrapped
in
one.....

I was lost in a captivating stare. His dark, wavy hair was hiding his gently closed eyes, and his perfect jawline was slightly tensed. As my gaze moved across his bare chest, I noticed the beat of his heart increase. All at once, the muscles in his long, strong arms flexed and he abruptly rose in the bed, gasping slightly as his crystal blue eyes grew wide for an instant. He glanced to his side at me, then let his legs fall to the side of the bed and leaned forward on his knees. I pulled myself up and crawled to him, carefully laying my face against his back as I wrapped my arms around his lean waist.

“I was almost sure you wouldn’t wake like that this time,” I whispered.

He reached for my hands and held them tight as he let out a slow, deep breath.

“Tell me what happens,” I said just before planting a tender kiss on his warm, tan skin.

“Nothing,” he answered as his eyes blankly stared forward.

“If I couldn't feel the truth in your words, I’d swear you were lying to me.”

Breaking my hold on him, he stood and walked to the balcony doorway, opening it to let the cool early morning air in. He then reached his arms to the top of the frame, tilted his head slightly forward, and stretched his body as he tried to wake up, to focus.

“If you don’t see anything, if it’s not a nightmare, then how come you wake up like that?” I asked as I moved my legs to the side of the bed.

“It’s....it’s just a feeling,” he said as he let his arms fall and leaned into the door frame.

“I know how it feels, Landen...I feel every dark emotion from grief to agony just as you wake...those feelings don’t come to life without a reason,” I said quietly as I caught myself gazing at how perfect the morning sun was reflecting in his eyes.

“I don’t know, baby. One minute we’re dreaming together...then...then when we decide to wake up, and there’s this void, something stopping me from waking up...I feel dark, misguided...heartbroken, and I have no idea why. Then it feels cold, dense, and when I decide to push through that feeling, tell myself I have no reason to feel that way, a thousand fears flash before my eyes - then I wake.”

“And what fears are those?” I asked, swearing I felt him push the emotion of envy down.

“That’s not mine,” he said, glancing at me. “I don’t feel envy, at least not that deeply. I don’t know where those emotions are coming from.”

I swallowed nervously as my heart began to beat faster. “I don’t ever want you to feel that way...nothing is ever going to tear us apart...not him, not anything.”

“I know,” he said as he smiled slightly and his dimples dared to show themselves. I knew that expression; that was the one he gave me when he wanted to calm my unbalanced emotions, the look he gave me when he didn’t know what to do or say next. “I’m sure it’s stress or something. Don’t worry about it, OK?” he said as stood up straighter and walked to me. “You look tired, too. Maybe we should stay here today.”

“If there is even one...we need to be there,” I said as I analyzed every emotion he had.

In the past seven days, Drake has pushed close to three thousand souls into the string – into the safety of my arms. Last night when he met me and Landen in the string, he told us not to expect many today. In the eyes of his people, he had executed thousands for simply believing that I was real, so he thought this act was causing my followers to grow silent – to move underground.

“Do you think you’re having this nightmare thing because we have to find a new way to save them?”

“No. We’ll find a way. I’m fine,” he said as he leaned down and kissed my lips, filling me with love and immense passion with every hungry movement of them.

I slowly pulled away and reached for his face. “I felt the lie in those words.”

His hand met mine as he stood up. “We’ll find a way,” he promised, hating that I’d ended the onset of a passionate moment.

“Not in that part; in the ‘I’m fine’ part.” I said as my eyes rapidly moved across his addictive image.

“It just feels like a lie because I don’t know what fine is anymore. We’re together,” he said as he glanced at my chest, “alive and well, so...I’m fine.”

Before I could say anything - including apologizing again for pushing that blade of diamonds in my chest in front of him - he cleared his throat and said, “I’m going to take a quick shower.”

I pulled the covers over my shoulder and rolled to my side to stare out at the balcony. Through the doorway that was slightly open, a white butterfly drifted into my room along the path of the sun. I watched as it danced above me, and as I gently reached my hand up, without hesitation it landed on my warm skin. I pulled my hand gently to me and studied the details of this beautiful creature.

I could hear the water in the bathroom beating down on Landen’s body, and I could feel his emotions as they weighed the day before us. We would have to find a new way save the people on the dark side of Esterious, and we still had no idea what our next trial may hold. Not to mention we hadn’t seen Dane or Clarissa since before we moved the wall. We never talked about it, but I knew we both thought that we’d burned a bridge within our family. It was something that’s never happened before, and it reflected our deepest fear: that our family would become our ultimate sacrifice.

Today, after Drake’s mock execution, we were all to meet in Perodine’s study to discuss the coming trial of Mars – the one trial everyone seemed to fear the most. They fear it for what it’s known for influencing: war. I’m sure it would be wise for me to fear it too, but honestly, I’m just tired...very tired.

I felt like I was just spinning in circles; the closer we worked with Drake, the more distant Landen and I seemed to grow. When we were in Esterious, I felt him push down every emotion from jealously to betrayal. My gut told me he didn’t believe that I’d ever leave him for Drake, but I knew he hated the fact that we had to work with him, that we had to trust him if we were going to make it through whatever curse we were fighting. I kept telling myself that if I could find her - the girl I was sure that existed, the one that surely looked like me - that Drake would fall for her, the tension between the three of us would end, and we’d all be able to work together without fighting our natural emotions.

Landen hated that thought process, but I never asked him why. I felt it from him whenever I’d wonder aloud where she may be, and I assumed he felt that way because he knew that if I was thinking of finding her, I was thinking of Drake’s heart – which meant I was unfocused on what really needed to be done: saving all the lost souls in Esterious.

The bathroom door opened, and I turned to watch Landen dress for the day. He glanced at me as he pulled his black T-shirt over his head. I loved the way the shade brought out his haunting blue eyes.

“You have a new friend,” he teased, noticing the butterfly that was still resting on my hand.

I smiled and moved my hand to the bedside table, urging the butterfly to find a new resting place. I then grudgingly threw my covers back and edged to the side of the bed. I could feel the intent of Rose and my father to come to our house for breakfast. They were both worried about us; they seemed to think that our bodies would soon succumb to the stress they were under - and the way Landen had woken up over the last week gave me reason to think they may be right. We hadn't told them about it though, we knew that would just add to their endless concerns about us, and it was already hard enough to find a moment alone.

“I’m going to call Brady and see if they need help loading the Jeeps,” Landen said before he kissed my forehead and left the room.

Supplies were growing slim in Delen. The land was producing at a rate like never before, but it was almost winter, and the crops hadn’t had time to develop. We knew the people there didn’t need the stress of finding a way to support each other. Winters were mild in Chara, and the crops, like everything else, were in abundance. Each day, travelers have taken loads of food and supplies to the ever growing city.

I took a long, quiet shower as I debated how to protect the world of Esterious from the darkness that was haunting me. I told myself that when that day came, all of my worries would wash away and I wouldn’t have to fear an unwanted fate or look into the demon’s eyes again. In the back of my mind, though, I could feel my subconscious screaming at me, telling me that Esterious was only one of many dimensions that had lost their way. Underneath all the stress in my life, Drake plagued my thoughts; it took everything I had to hide the way he made my heart race, the memory of his energy within mine.

As I went in my room to dress for the day, I found that my butterfly now had friends; across my room, I counted eight fluttering around. They made me smile, something that seemed hard to do here lately. I could feel my father and Rose downstairs. They thought I was avoiding them. Landen could feel that notion, too, and was coming up the stairs to find me. I was putting my shoes on when he came in.

“Now you have several friends,” he noted, grinning at the room full of butterflies.

“Isn’t that weird?” I asked. “I don’t ever think I’ve seen so many this late in the year. Is that common here?”

Landen looked curiously at the light blue one next to him before he began to help me make our bed. “I’ve seen them here through every part of the year. I think they like the flowers in the field. I’ve just never seen so many adventure inside at once.”

As I threw the last pillow on the bed, Landen came to my side and wrapped his arms around my waist. “I meant what I said before; we don’t have to go today,” he said as he reached to tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear as his eyes cascaded across my face. “We can find a quiet beach, you could sketch, take in the sun,” he whispered.

I looked down, not wanting to fight about this. “I just can’t rest if there are so many suffering.”

“Willow, if we forget what’s beautiful about life, we won’t be able to help anyone.”

I dared to look into his eyes, my weakness. “Tomorrow, maybe the next day - when we finally figure out how to keep saving them.”

Landen’s jaw tightened, and he nodded once as he tried to smile. “OK,” he said as his thumb reached to trace the bottom of my eye. “But if you wake up tomorrow and look any less rested, we’re taking a break.”

“You sound like my father,” I said, reaching up to brush his dark locks out of his eyes so I could see the blue and feel the peace of his energy.

“I take that as a compliment,” Landen said, winking at me.

Now that Landen had the power to heal he’d spent a lot of time asking my father about parts of the body. He wanted to know what he should always heal first. He feared and loved his new gift and simply wanted to make sure he used it wisely. My father took great pride in teaching him; it was as if he’d found someone who understood the human body as well as he did.